\ WO) Ul aaloue.@,41 OTHER Issue IX -March || I987 PRESS Douglas College's Autonomous Student Newspaper Interference charged By John McDonald Student society treasurer Chris Lirette and former senate member Keith Wilson have accused athletics director Betty-Lou Hayes of on-going abuse of student soc- iety funds and interference in stu- dent society politics, charges Hayes vehemently denies. “Ever since I’ve been on council she’s tried to manipulate us to do things her way,” says Lirette. “I don’t think she’s acting in a proper manner.” He maintains that Hayes has tried: to influence council in con- sideration of the controversial athletics levy and has abused her position as intermurals co- ordinator by submitting bills for equipment used by collegiate teams within the college under the intermurals budget. “Betty-Lou sent us up some bills for basketballs and golf supplies,” said Lirette. “She usually tells us in advance and we usually say yes or no, but this time she sent us up four bills without any clarification of what they are used for.” “This is not consistent with her usual practice,” added Lirette. As well, Lirette maintains that the golf supplies went towards a game of “corridor golf’ for staff and faculty only. “I haven’t been able to find an advertisment (for corridor golf for students) and she hasn’t been able to produce one,” he added. But Hayes maintains that the event did take place. “It was posted in front of the cafeteria, she said, “it just shows you how well people read signs around here.” Hayes said that three people . Showed up for the student version of the event and that they were “very interested.” “They all said they liked the idea but not now,” Hayes said. “We’re going to do it again when people are more into a golf frame of mind.” Hayes says that there is not enough communication between Lirette and herself. ‘“He’s suspi- cious of me and I don’t have the time to cater to him - I don’t think he’s willing to take the time to see what’s going on in intermurals.” But Lirette points to an incident last year where in a dispute over the requisitioning of handballs Hayes said if the senate wouldn’t give her money she would “get her guys in there and get it anyways“. But Hayes said, “I would never say that in a million years.” She also denied Lirette’s accusation of political interference in student society general meetings and sen- ate meetings. “As soon as_ they started saying things like that I stopped going. I haven’t gone to one for some time.” However, former senate mem- ber Keith Wilson, who was serving as acting president when the dis- pute over handballs occurred, confirmed Lirette’s account of the affair. “After the meeting she said to me ‘Well Keith, it doesn’t matter because I’ll get the money any- way.” “She sent us a bill for European handballs, something like $800.00, but at no point could she produce a list of players on __ intermural teams.” . Wilson maintains that the hand- balls left the campus and ended up in the hands of the Burnaby Beavers, a group that has no affili- ation with the college. Although Wilson admitted he had no hard evidence, that it is true. “The guy who told me about it was on the Burnaby Beavers,” said Wilson. “They can take me to court.” He also points to an _ incident several years back where Hayes was accused of booking ice time for intermurals and using it for regular hockey practices. See “Charges” page 2 he insists SGM panned The student society special gen- eral meeting on March Sth was the smoothest and least controversial this year - maybe because it only lasted two minutes. The meeting, which requires one hundred students to reach quorum, barely made fifty and was adjourned within two minutes of being convened. Some of the agenda items included the im- peachment of social sciences rep. Petra Bangemann and __ treasurer Chris Lirette. “I thought it was gaging to be crawling with athletics students who wanted to reinstate Scott Nel- son and get me out and support the athletics levy,” said Ban- gemann. “I guess there was some basketball games scheduled.” “It’s the old ‘hop on the ban- dwagon’ kind of thing,” said Ban- gemann of the failure of 121 people who signed the petition calling for her impeachment to show up at the meeting. “I’ll bet half of them didn’t even know what they signed.” “IT don’t think they have a lot of foresight and it’s causing a lot of bickering internally,” said Lirette. “Tt appears to be an internal battle that’s being fought on the grounds of the student society.” “We have a two year backlog of Ideafest leaves By John McDonald Ideafest, the aborted brain-child of filmmaker Alan Clapp, finally left the college in the form of scrap lumber and rubble dragged from the colleges loading bay where it had languished since the ill-fated project closed less than a week af- ter opening. Ideafest also left behind over $20,000.00 in liens levelled against the college and Clapp by disgrun- tled employees and unpaid con- tractors, according to college bur- sar Bill Morfey. “I’ve asked our solicitors to try to remove them,” said Morfey, who acknowledged that some new liens could have been registered recently. “It’s something we tried and it failed,” said Morfey. He said that the college had lost no money from the failed venture that saw other investors loose close to $1,000,000.00. “If we could have generated the anticipated income it would have been worth it.” Clapp, a Los’ Angeles-based filmmaker and founder of BCTV’s News Hour, amongst other things, reportedly lost his business and home because of the failed project. Building services manager Terry Leonard confirmed the existence of the liens and named some of the disgruntled contractors. ‘Douglas Paint was one of them and Steeplejack Services was another - there was also a group of em- ployees who never got paid.” “It’s standard practice to include everyone you can think of when putting out a lien - it’s called the Pizza madness strikes remin EY ose ~ as em Nurses push pizza for graduation ceremony funding. | } Se ee eee | There’s a ton of fresh pizza float- ing around the college thanks to the nursing department. “Tt’s a fund-raising event for the nursing grad 87,” said Barbara Kirkwood, president of the gradu- ating class. “We took orders three weeks ago, mostly from within the de- partment but some from .outside,” said Kirkwood. “We’re _ filling them now.” She said -that the fund-raising effort was to pay for the $10,000.00 cost of their grad which will in- clude a tea and the ceremony at the Orpheum. “We pay for the whole thing ourselves - no one helps us,” added Kirkwood. “It’s really cheap pizza and it’s good.” Anyone interested in some pizza, which sell for $1.95 for a nine inch pizza or $23.40 for a case of twelve, can get ahold of Barbara in the nursing department. constitutional amendments and other proposals to deal with,” said Lirette. “It’s interfering with regu- lar business.” Speaker of the house Mickey McLaughlin has made an informal suggestion to the senate that would change the by-laws regard- ing impeachment. “I told them that the impeachment of senate reps should come from their own houses and not from other depart- ments.” Bangemann agreed with Mc- Maughlin’s assessment. “I think that’s a real weakness in the con- stitution and I will try to amend it,” she said. “It’s not taken seriously anymore.” Photo by Rachael Smith Chris Lirette; calls the student society a battle ground. debt shot-gun effect.” He added that the purchasers of the Ideafest remnants paid $2,000.00 for the right to haul it away. Morfey said he did not think the failed space sciences extravagan- za, which was marked with shod- dy displays and out-dated equip- ment, had hurt the college’s image in the community. “I don’t think it had a detrimental effect on the college’s image - it didn’t last long enough.” Photo by Rachael Smith Dig deep for Rick